How to Fill in the Factory Fuel Filler Hole

Our 1965 Ford project truck is still a few months away from paint, but we found a little downtime while waiting for some parts to arrive. We thought that we would take advantage of this time to work on cleaning up our cab. Eventually we are going to remove the body side molding and mirrors and fill in these areas to give our truck body a nice, neat, clean-shaven look.

One of the first things that we did when we purchased our project truck was to remove the factory gas tank from behind the seat. While we could have purchased a replacement one from an aftermarket manufacturer, we chose to relocate our fuel tank to between the rear framerails. This creates a problem of what to do with the large unsightly hole that is left after everything had been removed. We decided that our best solution would be to create a template of the hole and fill it in with a piece of sheetmetal.

Danny Day owner of Strange Daze Rods and Bikes had helped us locate our project truck and allowed us to store it in his shop. Fortunately for us, one afternoon Danny had one of those rare days where he had a little free time, so he decided to walk us through the process of how to create a filler piece and weld it in. We followed along while he demonstrated the technique using simple shop tools.

2/391. Here is our gas filler hole once the tank and filler neck have been removed.

3/392. First, the side molding is removed to give plenty of access to the surrounding area.

4/393. A 3⁄8 nut driver is used to remove the body side molding clips.

5/394. Danny next looks at the passenger side to get an idea of how the metal flows so that he can duplicate it on the driver side.